Catch That Kid (2004) is a remake of the 2002 Danish film,
Catch That Girl , and is an almost scene to scene copy of the original film. Both are billed as “kid-friendly”
thrillers.
Catch That Kid stars Kristen Stewart (b. 1990, California,
USA) who was thirteen at the time the film was made. Stewart is best known for her role as the young daughter in Panic Room (2002) and in the
Twilight Saga films, as Bella Swan, a human teenager who falls in love with a
vampire who was born in 1901 and made into a vampire in 1918.
The plot of Catch That Kid is actually quite simple. Thirteen year-old Maddy (short for
Madeline) is a talented young rock climber whose father suddenly needs a
terribly expensive experimental surgery
for which the family has no resources. She recruits two thirteen year-old eighth-grade boys (both
of whom love her, of course) to help her rob an impregnable bank using their
computer and mechanical skills.
The plot is thickened because Maddy must also babysit for her one year
old brother on the night of the robbery.
The movie is touted as a fun “kid-friendly thriller” and it does
have thrills and suspense. It also
has plot holes, logical inconsistencies, silly slapstick level humor, and
glosses over or skips entirely legal consequences which would be caused by the events
depicted. It also contains a
science fiction element with technology not yet available and especially not
available in 2003. What this
all means is that the events in this film could not actually happen. The children would have been captured, injured, or possibly killed.
Several of the reasons why this film is inappropriate for
children include:
1.
Number one, the children rob a bank, committing
a major crime. One of the boys
opines, “I wonder if we can finish the eighth grade in prison.”
2.
The children engage in mild profanity.
3.
The children lie to adults to manipulate them
and obviously enjoy doing so.
4.
Maddy manipulates a bank executive to steal his
access codes. In doing so, she
commits theft of intellectual property.
5.
Maddy lies to both of the boys to get them to
help her. She tells each of the boys that she loves him, manipulating his emotions.
6.
Maddy has to babysit her one year old brother on
the night of the heist. Since she
cannot just leave him at the house, she takes him along on the robbery, thereby
exposing an infant to great danger.
7.
Maddy’s mother lies to keep the three twelve
year olds out of trouble.
The film seems to teach children that, as long as everything
works out well in the end, it is acceptable and even smart to lie or to steal or to endanger an innocent. What you want is more important than
what is right. The glorification
of the self, the essence of this fallen world, the essence of sin.
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